Would punk happen now? Would rave?

Ever wanted to know more about, say, Marxist ideas of alienation or the situationists, but couldn’t face reading actual Marxist or situationist theory? Well now you don’t have to, writes Suzanne Harrington.

A very helpful man called Ian Marchant has done it for you, and put it all in a book, A Hero For High Times, whose subtitle is A Younger Reader’s Guide To The Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New Age Travellers and Dog-On-A-Rope Brew Crew Crusties Of The British Isles, 1956-1994.

Now, as a retired raver, i am definitely not a younger reader — that ship has not so much sailed as circumnavigated the globe — yet decrepitude has not granted me the patience to digest raw theory.